


Thieves on the Playground

by Arsoemon



Series: Younglings [10]
Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Alternate Universe - Babies, Childhood Friends, Everything is Beautiful and Nothing Hurts, Fluff without Plot, Gen, Good Parent Sakura Sojiro, Tiny Thief Verse, except sojiro
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-13
Updated: 2020-12-13
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:01:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 986
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28050576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arsoemon/pseuds/Arsoemon
Summary: Sojiro takes all the tiny thieves to the park
Series: Younglings [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1581940
Comments: 9
Kudos: 25





	Thieves on the Playground

It’s a perfect day to go to the park, and Sojiro’s littles all seem to agree. At their request, he calls to ask if their friends can go, too. After bribing Tae to help keep watch over everyone with not one but two cups of coffee, they’re all set to go.

They break into a run the instant they reach the playground, their friends running to greet them for the first time since yesterday—an absolute eternity.

“What do we play first?” Haru asks.

Ryuji holds up his new ball. “Let’s play ball! We can pass it around!”

“You kick hard!” Futaba complains.

“I won’t! We can just pass it around,” Ryuji promises, leading the way to an open patch of grass. He sets the ball on the ground and kicks it to his right, Akira. Akira kicks it to Yusuke who kicks it to Haru, who sends it gently to Futaba, to Ann, to Goro who apparently has a strong kicking leg. Makoto catches the ball just before it can hit her face.

“No.” She places the ball back on the ground and kicks it hard back at Goro. He ducks as it approaches and gives a mischievous giggle as he runs to retrieve it. Everyone steps back, expanding the circle as he returns. He kicks it back to Makoto. Now she has to go get it. She passes it to Ryuji, still eying Goro with a hard expression.

The ball makes its rounds again before only Goro is left. Ann passes it to him, and with a running start he sends it at Makoto. She catches it and sticks her tongue out at him. Futaba gets distracted by a butterfly and follows it to the swings. Ryuji intercepts the back and forth between Makoto and Goro and passes it to Haru who kicks it at no one in particular. Goro runs for it and watches it roll to Ann as Yusuke sends it her way.

It quickly becomes a game of keep-away as the others avoid passing to Makoto and Goro. Akira asks Yusuke if he’d like to go swing too as Futaba calls for a push. Haru spots flowers a little ways away and runs to investigate.

That left Ann and Ryuji and an impromptu soccer game against the two older kids. They unleash their skills against each other, kicking as hard and as far as they can. There are no rules, no way to determine a winner, but after a while of sprinting full speed around the grass, they all congratulate each other on a good game and go to get water from Sojiro.

Sojiro calls the others for a short break, too, and doles out snacks.

“You all having fun?” They all nod eagerly, a bit preoccupied with the sandwiches.

“We should go on a adventure!” Ann suggests, thanking Sojiro for the food as she hands her trash back.

“Space! Space space space!” Futaba hops up and chants, running in a circle next to the table. Everyone seems alright with it, and after cleaning up and getting the go ahead from Sojiro, they rush the jungle gym.

Even from here, Sojiro can make out Akira’s directions to Captain Skull on where to steer the space ship. After a short while of the littles huddled together at the top platform, they dock on a new planet and head out to investigate the surrounding grounds.

Sojiro watches the little thieves dart around the playground from his seat on the bench with Tae. He can’t help but smile at their innocence as they giggle and discover invisible treasures in the tiny spaces around the park. And then the thoughts creep in like they often do.

There will come a day when this is no more. When they no longer hold his hand to walk down the street or dance with him in the kitchen. When they don’t want to tell him every little thing about their day and helping around the house is truly a chore. When the monsters move out of the closets into the outside world. When they no longer love to follow him around until he sends them to play. When his kids are no longer kids, when they no longer need him.

“Okay. First of all, no,” Tae takes a sip of her second coffee. “They will never not need you, so buckle up and get ready to stress for the rest of your life, old man. Second, you can only worry about the future when it becomes the present. As for today, your oldest is probably gonna need a bandaid if he keeps dangling like that, and it looks like we have a flower delivery on the way, so fix yourself up.”

She hands him a tissue. “Don’t get so caught up in what you will miss that you end up actually missing it while you still have it. Are those for me?!” She asks in her most enthusiastic talking-to-little-kids voice as Haru and Yusuke approach with handfuls of flowers.

“We got you one too, Jiro-than,” Yusuke offers him the clover. “Thee? Four leaf, one for Go-nii and Aki and Baba and me.” He looks so proud of himself. Sojiro accepts it with a smile, ruffling the boy’s hair and taking the opportunity to wipe his eyes again while Yusuke giggles and gets his bangs back in place.

The other caregivers return to collect their littles after brief, pleasant chats with Sojiro. His own four make their way back to him and wish Takemi a good evening as they all head back home. Dinner isn’t as lively as usual, but they still go on and on about the day and how fun it was in between their yawns. He smiles as he tucks them in, watching for a moment as they all drift off to sleep, determined to memorize every little detail of one of their best days yet.


End file.
